More Than Just Dinner
by ShotgunSymphony
Summary: In an alternate universe, where the Leaf Anbu do not attack the Cipher Corps Squad under Kisame's protection, the mysterious girl finally gets her dinner... I appreciate reviews ;u;


As usual, a dreary fog lingers around the city of Kirigakure; but this night, that fog cannot break the undeniable glee a certain Mist Shinobi feels as her feet bounce on the pavement in wait. Anticipation keeps the young woman moving in the chill. She listens to the sounds of the street: chats and sandals clicking on cobble, and shivers and shuffling, and the subtle movement of her own thick hair in the breeze. She glances up to the night sky with large, dark eyes to see that the fog slowly moves away.

Time ticks away rapidly as the city moves, but to this young woman every second drags on forever. The people around her seem to move in slow-motion, and their words slur as she loses focus. Letting out a long exhale, she hugs herself and her arms disappear into her simple green and white yukata. Patience, she tells herself, as she awaits the arrival of her date. Closing her eyes, her mind wanders to earlier in the day...

_Cipher corp race through the trees, leaping from branch to branch after their burly body-guard. She raises her right hand to sweep a vexing piece of hair from her eyes, and glances to the blue-skinned male who received the task of protecting their group. A smile crosses her fair lips, and she opens her mouth to speak. "Hoshigaki-San.." She calls, happy to gain his attention. _

_"-About earlier, about having dinner together." The young woman restarts the conversation hopefully, and keeps her eyes glued to his. "Are you up for it?" The shark-nin's lips remain parted, either in thought or in disbelief. But for whatever reason, she finds his blatant confusion charming. Finally, after taking the moment to ponder an answer, he turns fowards and focuses on the gloomy forest ahead as his toes step onto another thick branch, springing off again in one fluid motion. _

_"Yes." He replies dryly, now tracking the grass at the base of the strong trees. The Cipher woman's smile widens, wholly pleased by his answer. _

_"Great," she beams. "We'll meet in front of Teppanyaki at eight- sharp." She finalizes, turning forwards again. But from the corner of her eye she notices his lingering glance, and this causes a delighted shiver to run down her spine, excited for tonight... _

_'I hope he didn't forget'... _She wishes, clicking her heels together once as the young woman returns to reality.

"Sorry I'm late." A familiar voice apologizes, causing her to rapidly raise her head, shoulders automatically tightening as her eyes set upon his pale blue features. Glancing off to one side, and rubbing the base of his neck with a large hand, Kisame's clearly sheepish actions cause her to relax and smile warmly.

"Don't worry about it, you must have been busy." She waves him off, hopening to make the young man feel comfortable about this outing. "But it's nice to see you again, Hoshigaki-San."

Kisame's head faces her, hand falling to his side. "Likewise." Again, with a detached and unemotional voice. Sighing inwardly, she extends a delicate hand to him and smiles, whilst telling herself with determination: _'I will break him out of his shell.' _Kisame looks down to her hand, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Well? You're my date, lead me into the restaraunt." She states adamantly, not pulling back her hand away or moving unless he does so. Tentatively, Kisame brings up his right hand to carefully place against hers, then slowly wraps his fingers around to hold her hand. She is surprised by the cold feeling of his digits, and he is equally surprised by her warm palm against his. Slowly she lowers her hand, bringing his down with hers; next, she moves to stand at his right, left hand in his. "Go ahead." She encourages, and Kisame takes the steps into the restaraunt doors.

After telling the hostess that it is just the two of them, the blonde smiles and leads them to an available table. Her hand slides from his as she takes her seat on one side of the mahagony table, whilst he takes the other side. The young woman studies a tiny grill placed in the center of the table, and then leans her arms on the table to fold her hands under her chin. Kisame in the meanwhile settles against the back of the bench, looking like his usual detached self with a far-off gaze into the rest of the eatery. "So, Hoshigaki-San..." She starts, successfully gaining his attention. His arms fold loosely against his chest, and he listens intently. "What do you- uhh..." She glances to the side, distracted as two glasses of water are set on the table by a waitress. "What do you..." Suddenly, she finds herself stumbling for words, as his posture and intense stare make her fumble inwardly. "What do you like to do? I mean, any hobbies?" She asks, but kicks herself for such a plain question.

"..." Finding an answer becomes hard for Kisame. What _does _he enjoy doing? Well, killing and missions, but those don't seem like appropriate things to say on a first date, or any date for that matter. Instead, he decides to reply with dodging the answer altogether. "Well- ... I never got your name."

The young woman faulters, scolding herself for neglecting such a detail. "Shiji Kimagure.." She replies, extending a hand for the official meeting hand-shake. He pulls out his right hand and returns the shake besides the hot grill, and refolds his arms across his broad chest.

Finally, the waitress arrives and takes their order of meats and fish, then departs to bring them out. "Anyways, Hoshigaki-San, what are your hobbies?" Kimagure restates her question properly, and Kisame dead-pans inside as he actually must answer this time. With her patient smile across the table, he rushes to find one.

"I don't have time for hobbies." Kisame finally answers, seeming completely cool once more. Kimagure's epression changes into badly-concealed disappointment, which forces Kisame to actually choose an answer this time. Scratching the base of his neck and glancing to the side as to avoid her eyes, he resolutes: "I'd like to learn how to cook."

Kimagure's gleeful smile returns, glad to see he took a chance and answered properly. With his seemingly shy actions, she wonders if the mission-happy Kisame could truely be bashful. "That sounds wonderful." She replies, head tilting and giving him a reassuring, close-eyed smile in return.

The shark-nin looks up at the waitress as their platter of meats is brought, and a pair of prongs to pierce the meat. She sets the platter in front of the grill, and asks if anything more is needed. Answered with a 'no', the waitress bows her head and leaves. Kisame picks up his two-pronged fork and pierces a piece of steak, letting it flop onto the small grill. His nostrils flare as he drinks the scent, and Kimagure giggles at the sight. Returning to his aloof state, he looks across to her with his lips parted again.

"So, Hoshigaki-San," she begins, poking a piece of pork and putting it onto the grill besides Kisame's beef. "I know you're training with your katana, do you plan on becoming one of the Seven Swordsmen?" She asks, hoping to get the young man to open up more by peaking his interests.

"Yes, I do." Kisame places another beef onto the little grill at the same time Kimagure does, and leans his fork on the side of the platter. "I've been hoping to join ever since I was young." Kimagure smiles, absorbing the little tid-bit about his childhood. "My turn." He states, flipping over his first piece of beef. A little smoke cloud billows above their grill, quickly disappating into the restaraunt's air. "What do you plan on doing?"

Kimagure smiles at the simple question, glad Kisame isn't diving too deep into her personal info like a few other dates have, and also glad that she doesn't have to ask all the questions. She places another small piece of beef on the grill, turning her other pork slices. "Well, for starters I hope to eventually settle down. Have a husband and a kid or two." The young woman replies, a dreamy expression on her soft features as she pokes at the cooking pork. Kisame- lips apart- watches her meaningless proding and the sweet smile on her rosy lips. Such a hopeful sentiment, but he knows that such fanfiful dreamings belong to a civilian, not a shinobi.

"What about you?" Kimagure asks. "Do you want to settle down eventually?"

"I don't think that kind of life is possible for me." He replies, holding up a piece of beef on his fork. She frowns, disliking that particular answer. It wasn't the sentence itself, but his delivery: plain and dry.

"Oh..." She pokes aimlessly at the piece of beef on her side, then eyes the perfectly cooked sections on his. With a playful smirk, she stabs a piece of meat from his side and chomps down on it, much to Kisame's aghast surprise. Giggling whilst she covers her mouth so he doesn't see her partially-chewed food, Kisame sticks the piece of beef already on his fork in his mouth and stabs at one of her porks, taking the slice and removing it from the prongs so he has two pieces of meat sticking from between his jaws. Kimagure swallows her bite and looks at him with humored shock, then stabs her fork into his last piece and he her last piece of pork, crossing arms over the grill. Simultaniously they pull away and Kisame finishes the two pieces already in his mouth and smirks as he places the third inside. Within a couple of chews he is done, whilst it takes Kimagure with her flat teeth a bit more work.

Smirking with his hidden frisky side revealed, Kisame waits for her to finish before both forks rapidly plung into the piece of meat, the two leaning over the table competitively. But of course, she loses to Kisame's strength and he yanks the beef from her, sticking it into his mouth. A portion hangs from his teeth as she frowns with an open-mouth at her defeat.

But, just because he stole the meat from her does not mean it's his. She places her hands on the table and leans over the grill to take the rest of the meat in her teeth, their lips almost touching through this. In his surprise, Kisame jerks his head back and lets go of the steak in the process. Triumphantly, she leans back and gnaws on the piece of cooked meat, a completely smug expression on her face. Still in shock from her sudden action, Kisame sits motionless as she finishes the piece and licks off a trail of juice that runs down her chin. Taking a sip of water, the young woman glances over to him and nearly chokes on the gulp, lowering her glass just in case. "You look rediculous..." She snickers, then reaches over and closes his mouth for him. "Hang your mouth open for too long and maybe you'll catch a fly." She chortles, settling back in her chair.

Kisame closes his eyes for a moment, regaining composure. But the undeniably, blatant fact remains: he found her playfulness extremely charming. Placing several pieces of meat onto the small grill and asking more questions between them, they hardly notice that the number of customers deminishes by the minute. After a rocky start to their date, Kisame finds himself opening up more to this friendly, charming, auburn-haired Cipher shinobi who asked him out for dinner on a complete whim. As well, Kimagure notices how much she listens to his answers, sharing a story here-and-there and watching his lips form into oddly irrisistable smirks and grins.

Having forgetten about the last piece of uneaten meat on the platter, the twosome continue to chat as the last customer leaves the restaraunt. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but the restaraunt is closing soon..." Says a waiter as he drops by their table, and finally the two notice the absence of everyone else.

But, neither of them wish for this night to end.

"We could.. go back to my place." Kimagure suggests, with a light shade of pink on her cheeks and a smile. Paying, Kisame returns her smile with an odd one of his own.

"I'm up for it."

As they leave the restaraunt, Kimagure shivers in the cold night. Her breath plumes into clouds, bundling up with herself. Kisame glances down to her, noticing her nose turning red as they walk down the empty street. How late was it, anyways? Kisame wonders, head looking up to the patches of clear night sky between the clouds.

Within minutes, Kimagure enters the apartment complex where her dwellings are. She leads Kisame up the stairs to the tenth floor of the Kirigakure skyscraper, pulling out her keys from her yukata. Glancing over her shoulder inconspicuously, she then unlocks the door and flicks on the lights to her cozy apartment. Tidy, and with little meaningless decorations placed about, this certainly is a woman's apartment.

She drops her keys into a metal bowl on the oak end table beside the door, moving so Kisame can step inside. "You can put your coat into the closet, if you want." She suggests, still shifting random objects on the end table. However, Kisame knows exactly what she means:

_I'd like you to stay a while. _

Complying dutifully, he opens the small closet door and hangs his black jacket inside. Once she hears the knob close, she removes her shoes and instructs Kisame to do the same, then moves herself from the entry hall, passes the kitchen, and steps into the living room where she spins around on the dark carpet. "This, is my house." She says with relieved enthusiasm, thankful for the warmth of her housing compared to outside. Kisame follows her, sweeping the living room with a single glance. "It's definately a woman's apartment." He comments.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She questions, but just gets a snide smirk as her response. Letting the subject drop with a roll of her eyes, Kimagure leads Kisame down the hall to show him the rest of her apartment- just a quick gesture to the bathroom, the office (2nd bedroom) and to the final door in the hallway, hers. She slowly opens the door, revealing a rectangular space with her queen-sized bed at the back wall, biege carpeting and an earthy brown accent wall behind it. Overall, the space had a very natural feel. Moonlight from the sweeping window floods onto the floor, having a fantastic view of Kiragakure.

Even though the purpose of entering the room was to show Kisame around, Kimagure neglects to turn on the lights as her bare feet set lightly onto the carpet and delicately walk towards her bed to sit on the end, gazing outside at the clouded night sky. Kisame stands by the doorway, eyes glued to her body as she leans back on her arms, crossing her legs. He maintains his stare until her head slowly turns, lips with no expression of emotion until her eyes meet his, when the faintest of a smile appears. A smile of the same calibur reach his lips, and he moves from the doorway to cross the room. She waits, their gaze never breaking even as the young woman rests on her back, legs unfolding as the larger Kisame moves overtop her, hands pressing against the mattress on both sides of her head. Her auburn hair spreads on the white blanket, large black eyes slowly closing as she moves her hand to his cheek. A warmth moves through his body at her gentle touch.

Craning his neck down, Kisame tilts his head at the perfect angle. "Just a dinner, huh?" He asks with a soft smirk.

"Oh, shut it." Their eyes fully close as Kisame attaches his lips with hers, moving their mouths slowly with each other as he finally stops talking.


End file.
